Glen Cinema Disaster

Glen Cinema Fire of 31 December, 1929 in Paisley, Scotland, killed 69 children and injured 40.

On the afternoon of 31 December 1929, during a children's matinee, a freshly shown film was put in its metal box, in the spool room, began to issue thick black smoke. Soon the smoke filled the auditorium containing about one thousand children. Panic set in. Children ran downstairs so fast and in such numbers that they piled up behind the escape door which led to Dyers Wynd. The door could not be opened, as it was designed to open inwards and was padlocked. The following day, Paisley was stunned by the news that seventy children had died in the crush in the worst cinema disaster in British history.

A small display is at Paisley Museum which has some articles on the disaster, a receipt for a funeral, a pair of shoes, and a hat. There are also letters sent to the Lord Mayor of Paisley from other Civic Leaders, both in the UK, Europe and from the USA. Some of the more poignant letters are from women who were unable to keep their own children, offering them to the devastated familes of Paisley.

In 2005 a team of archaeologists rediscovered the cinema buried behind the walls of a furniture shop in Paisley’s town centre. The disaster to this day is considered one of Scotland's worst human disasters.

Further reading

* [http://www.glencinema.org.uk/ Glen Cinema Website]
* [http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/tv_guide/full_details/British_history/programme_2867.php The History Channel Documentary on the Disaster]